APRO associate member Corsicana Mattress Company recently hosted APRO staff members for tours of its Florida location and its new Texas-based factory – a replacement for the company’s 50+-year-old original manufacturing facility.
Founded in Corsicana, Texas, in 1971 by entrepreneurs Gail and Harold Moran, Corsicana Mattress today has a total of seven factories nationwide. The 376,00-square-foot Texas facility – toured by APRO CEO Charles Smitherman, Vice President of Membership Jen Troke, and Director of Finance Tulisha Wendele – is more than twice the size of the company’s average factories, which typically have square-footage between 140-175k.
“I loved learning the mattress-production process during our time at the Corsicana facility,” said Wendele. “Now I understand the story of The Princess and the Pea – there are so many layers involved in mattress-making!”
APRO team members learned about different types of Corsicana mattresses, including new models under the company’s reimagined Nightsbridge and SleepFresh brands, and two new mattresses that are part of a partnership between Corsicana and WinkBeds – an e-commerce brand that designed the mattresses exclusively for brick-and-mortar stores supplied by Corsicana.
“We’re proud to provide 15 different mattress models for the rent-to-own market,” said Scott Montague, Corsicana’s Vice President of Business Development. “And we offer many of our top-performing models with the mattress protector pre-installed, especially for our RTO customers.”
Montague also taught APRO staff members about Corsicana Cares, the company’s environmental initiative that includes use of all CertiPUR-US Certified foams and 95% recycled-steel innersprings, recycling of cardboard, foam, plastic, crates, and pallets, and the incorporation of energy-efficient lighting.
“This tour was a terrific staff-development opportunity for me and the team,” Smitherman said. “We learned a lot from Scott about the manufacturing process and how our members are working to continuously improve it.”
Meanwhile, APRO Director of Marketing & Communications Amberlee Maya visited a Corsicana Mattress location closer to her homebase of Tampa, Florida. Plant Manager Karisa Porterfield led Maya through a tour of the 144k-sq-ft factory, educating her particularly about the Central Florida factory’s extra environmental efforts.
“We’re proud to report that our facility recently has reduced our annual waste by 156 tons, saving $48,000 in the process,” Porterfield said. “We’ve also partnered with a local recycling company to help produce a fossil-fuel alternative. The company recycles our ‘clean waste’ and compresses it into Enviro-Fuelcubes®, which are used to power a local cement plant.”
Maya was impressed by the inner workings of the factory, including the many materials and massive equipment used in mattress production, as well as the Florida facility’s take on the Corsicana Cares program.
“Speaking with Karisa about how her team is taking Corsicana Cares to the limit was eye-opening,” said Maya. “It’s amazing how they’re transforming waste, fueling local industries, and reducing landfill use.”
“I love spending time with our members, and learning more about what they do and how they do it,” Troke concluded. “It helps us understand the product from start to finish, and that makes us better advocates for rent-to-own!”
